Lionel Crane Car Cab won’t rotate (6-81883)

Showing the gear is spring loaded and must be pressed in to engage, and then the arm slides into the groove between the gear and integrated washer/collar to "lock" the gear into engagement.

@cdswindell posted:

I'm hoping someone can give me some help. I just unboxed a Lionell Legacy crane car. All functions work as expected, except the cab won't rotate. I've engaged the little silver gear that moves up and down on a shaft to save the unit for shipping, and it turns the bigger black plastic gear when I rotate the throttle knob. However, that black gear doesn't seem to and mesh with anything. There is a large silver gear. I see behind it that when I rotate the cab manually, turns.

Am I missing something?

EDITS FOR ADDITIONAL ANSWERS

Does that big plastic gear also move up and down so it engages with the larger silver gear? No, none of the gears move up and down, they are all fixed by the bushings. However, if a gear was missing on the end of the shaft, then the bushing might pop out (beyond just the gear being loose) and then give the appearance of additional play in the shaft.

I've tried some "gentle encouragement", but as that gear is plastic, I don't wanna break it. You should not have to force anything, Sure, you may have to slightly rock or rotate the crane to get the gears to initially engage, but rocking or slight movement should align them with no pressure so the gear on the D shaft can be pushed in.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

  -- Dave

You might be missing or have a loose gear on the right hand side of the gearbox?

To my knowledge, those gears are not sold and the only way I know to get them was buying the entire gearbox, and even then mine was missing a gear when bought from Lionel parts (bought at the half off parts sale).

Example crane parts listing https://www.lionelsupport.com/MOW-TMCC-CRANE-6-29800

Note, your specific crane has no parts listed but the basic mechanical stuff did not change to my knowledge https://www.lionelsupport.com/...le-Crane-Car-6-81883

FWIW, I also own several cranes- both the TMCC and then later legacy versions, so I have first hand knowledge that some parts are interchangeable. Most of the changes were the electronics.

Basically, there are a lot of gears and shafts involved in that specific motion. The small gear drives the upper shaft, that crosses over to the other side- 2 more gears are there on the brushed end of the motor side of the gearbox, another shaft back over to the other side, and then 2 more gears to drive the shaft for the bevel gear. Lots of places for it to go wrong.